Inkjet printing is well known in the art. The basics of this technology are described, for example by Jerome L. Johnson “Principles of Non-impact Printing”, Palatino Press, 1992, Pages 302-336. ISBN 0-9618005-2-6. Commercial products such as computer printers, large format graphics printers and others exist.
An ink-jet print head consists of an array or a matrix of ink nozzles, with each nozzle selectively ejecting ink droplets towards a printing medium. The printing medium could be mounted on a drum, flat bed or just pulled from one roll to other. Relative movement between the print head and the medium allows image printing. Drum printers are the fastest of all known printer architectures, since at least in one direction (drum rotation) the medium movement is a continuous one. Recently, page wide or sheet wide arrays have become popular. They have further increased printer throughput. However, for exchange of the imaged or printed medium on a new one requires complete stop of the drum rotation.
This medium loading and unloading process, especially for wide format printers, where the medium may be 2×5 m2wide, reduces printer utilization and overall printer throughput. Therefore, there is a need in a method and printer that would perform the medium loading and unloading process without losing time and interrupting the printing process.